Irving ISD administrators and project designers are planning a “net-zero” concept for the new Lady Bird Johnson Middle School in Irving, Texas. When complete, it will be the nation’s largest net-zero middle school and will seek LEED-gold certification. A net-zero energy building is one that produces as much energy as it consumes. Through efficiency technologies and on-site power generation, the use of renewable energies allows the building to produce as much energy as it consumes from the electric grid. Image: Charter Builders/Corgan Assoc/IISD. The new Lady Bird Johnson Middle School is designed to be a net-zero school for Irving ISD.
LBJ Infrastructure Group, LLC (LBJIG) completed its financing for the Dallas LBJ Express project ahead of schedule. Construction should start in early 2011 and be on a fast track for completion by 2016. Photo: TXDOT. Traffic on IH-635 (LBJ Express) in Dallas is estimated to exceed 450,000 vehicles by 2020. The LBJ Express project will give motorists a choice to by-pass mainlane congestion by using managed lanes when complete by 2016. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" LBJ Infrastructure Group spokesman Andy Rittler tells Texas Construction that the biggest benefit of the early funding for North Texans is the project
Dallas-based Hill & Wilkinson will build two new auto dealerships – Honda of Burleson and Park Place Motorcars, a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Grapevine. Good, Fulton & Farrell of Dallas is the architect for both. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Both projects will be built to attain LEED certification. The Mercedes-Benz dealership is on a 20-acre site and will house a 27,000-sq-ft showroom, a 37,000-sq-ft service shop with 71 service bays, and a 20,000-sq-ft paint and body shop. Honda of Burleson is a 67,000-sq-ft facility on an 11-acre tract south of Fort Worth.
TEXO presented its 2010 Distinguished Award winners for exceptional building and personal achievements in Dallas, Fort Worth and East Texas communities. TEXO is association formed between consolidation of the North/East Texas Chapter of the Associated General Contractors and the Associated Builders and Contractors North Texas. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Companies recognized for their outstanding safety programs with Construction Safety Excellence Awards at the local level and were forwarded to a national competition, where CF Jordan Construction LLC won third place in its category. Other safety winners were Dee Brown Inc., Lasco Acoustics & Drywall, RBR Construction, Inc., SEDALCO.,
Dallas-based Balfour Beatty Construction was selected to provide pre-construction services and manage construction of the new headquarters for NPR in Washington, D.C. Balfour Beatty Construction is expected to complete the new NPR headquarters by the end of 2012, with NPR beginning operations at the building in 2013. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" The project will transform a historic warehouse into a sustainable 330,000-sq-ft office building.
Construction remains off from the boom times of a few years ago, but there are glimmers of hope in Houston, as well as worries related to BP’s oil spill. “In some respects, we are a bright spot in the country because we have enough public-sector work to keep people busy,” says Cliff Haehl, director of business development for Manhattan Construction Co. in Houston. “But it’s slower than at any time in the past 30 years.” However, Haehl says he expects that Houston, America’s fourth largest city, is well positioned to come out of the recession before some other parts of
Contractors can anticipate a flurry of projects over the next year as the Texas Dept. of Rural Affairs (TDRA) awards $1.5 billion in public projects to rebuild areas hit hard by hurricanes Dolly and Ike. In November 2008 Congress approved $3 billion in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for damages caused in Texas by Dolly and Ike. The Texas Dept. of Housing and Community Affairs is overseeing administration of the housing reconstruction portion, and TDRA is handling the other half, says Charlie Stone, TDRA’s executive director. “We made allocations according to
Only a few years ago, building information modeling was considered an emerging technology, but today it is rapidly taking a prominent place in the toolboxes of Texas designers and contractors. A growing number of owners and contractors now expect BIM to be used on projects, and they’re pushing other team members to embrace it. In light of the recession, some BIM experts see this as a critical period when firms can gain an edge with the technology or lose pace with the competition. “If you’re not working in BIM today, you’re behind the curve,” says Cameron Curtis, manager of business
Texas and Oklahoma are in the midst of building bridges and implementing replacement and rehabilitation programs, many of which are projects fueled by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars. Galveston Causeway Bridge The railway bridge in Galveston is one of the more intriguing projects. On the books since 2001 when the U.S. Coast Guard deemed the 1912-era, single-leaf bascule bridge a navigation obstacle to the Intracoastal Waterway, the project is now ramping up, funded by $60 million in stimulus dollars. The Truman-Hobbs Act of 1940 requires the federal government to share in the cost of upgrading bridges considered a navigational
For construction firms ready to add workers, a new law aimed at reducing unemployment offers grease for the skids. Enacted earlier this year, The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (or HIRE) Act grants a payroll tax exemption for hiring workers who have been out of work for at least 60 days. It wasn’t long ago that rehiring was a non-issue, given the rate at which jobs were being slashed. Certain business sectors and regions are now on the upswing. In Texas, job growth is fairly impressive. In May Texas had 75,200 more jobs than in May 2009, according to the
RSS